Upcoming Twitter Features for Small Business in 2020

In an effort to provide greater ease of functionality, as well as new and enhanced features that users will find appealing, Twitter is always engaged with testing and developing various applications and features to add to its platform. The year 2020 is no exception, and there are several new features in the works which are expected to find favor with platform users.The Vice President of Design and Research for Twitter recently shared a list of some of the new features which Twitter is working on to further captivate audiences on the platform. A lot of these new features provide greater control for users over retweets and @mentions, as well as shielding users from conversations they don't really want to be involved with.

Features for 2020

The first new feature for 2020 is one that will remove you from an ongoing conversation. If you happen to be involved with a conversation that goes in a direction you're not comfortable with or which you're not interested in, you'll have the capability of discreetly easing yourself out of the conversation, and moving on to something more productive.The next feature is one which disallows re-tweeting of any specific tweet you have. Whatever your reasons may be, you can prevent the current tweet from being shared with a number of others by invoking this new feature, and blocking the retweet attempt. This capability of disabling a retweet on your tweet will go a long way toward preventing its spread throughout the greater Twitter network. That means if you're worried at all about malicious people who may be trying to direct negative attention your way, you can nip that in the bud before it ever gains any traction.In other words, this is the perfect feature to combat harassment from other Twitter users. This is going to be up very useful tool for preventing any kind of viral spread of a tweet which you think is being misinterpreted or used against you, because someone might have a personal vendetta against you. This should have the overall effect of promoting healthier conversations among Twitter users, and lowering the amount of bad feeling among them.The next new feature prevents people from doing an @mention of you without your permission. This will allow you to remain more private if you desire, and will give you greater control over your online presence. Having the ability to prevent other users from using your name without permission could have the effect of fundamentally changing the way Twitter functions.

It means that you would no longer be allowed to tag people in tweets or threads without first obtaining their approval, and this could also be construed as an anti-harassment feature. When you publicly mention the user in a tweet and criticize them, it allows everyone who is viewing the tweet to do the same thing, providing them a link to your profile, and ensuring that all the replies show up in your mentions. This can result in a flood of negative mentions which could actually make Twitter unusable for a specific user.There are some filtering tools which Twitter provides that help lower the visibility of negative tweets, but no one really wants to face a barrage of harassment. Being able to stop that process in its tracks would be a great way to protect oneself, and that could have profound effects on the platform, which influence the way that people communicate with each other.In a similar vein, there will be a new feature which removes the current @mention from this conversation, so that it cannot be seen or detected by others. Finally, in 2020 you'll have the option of aiming your tweets at specific interests, friends, or hashtags, which will provide you with greater control of who sees your tweets, and who will have the capability of reacting to them.

Conversation Insights Tool

There is now a new tool called Conversation Insights which is available in the Publisher Insight portion of the Twitter Media Studio. Conversation Insights will allow publishers to view tweets which they may have overlooked on a dashboard which is customizable by the user. It will enable you to see exactly what kind of mentions there are about you, and it will also enable you to be aware of what's being said, minute by minute.

New following option

Twitter has finally rolled out the option for following specific topics on the platform, in the same way that you can now follow specific accounts. The feature was first announced during the middle of August, but it has not actually been implemented until very recently. Now users will have the capability of keeping tabs on topics which are of the greatest interest to them, so they can go right to these topics when they log on.

Labeling bots with a checkmark

Twitter is currently considering labeling bots on the platform with a check mark, so they can be clearly identified by all users. The reason for this is that the company is committed to providing transparency on the platform, such that users can see who is behind any account at all times. This is part of Twitter's overall initiative to battle trolls, identify bots clearly, and to work against the spreading of any kind of misinformation on the platform.

Testing emoji reactions for direct messages

The platform is attempting to make it easier to respond to a direct message, as well as to increase the speed of such responses. In this vein, it is testing emoji reactions which can be attached to any specific type of message, so as to provide the user with an option to simply use an emoji to express a relevant response, rather than writing out some kind of text.

Switching accounts during tweet replies

Twitter is currently testing a new option which would allow users to switch accounts right while they are still replying to a tweet. It is thought that this will make it easier to deal with multiple account interactions on the fly, thereby increasing productivity and efficiency, while also making it more convenient. It is not known when this new feature will be fully functional, or when it will be rolled out to the masses, although it would seem that 2020 is a reasonable time frame to expect this new feature.